The decision of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to start procurement of raw unginned seed cotton, also known as kapas, from the open market was mostly to meet the requirement of the buyers, said Lalit Kumar Gupta, chairman and managing director (CMD) of the CCI.
Gupta, who was speaking with The Indian Express, said CCI has till date procured 25,000 bales (1 bale has 170 kg of combed gin pressed cotton) from 15 procurement centres.
He said the present operations were commercial in nature and the CCI was procuring mainly platinum grade raw unginned seed cotton. “We are one of the many buyers in the market and our buying is dictated by the requirement of our buyers,” he said. Platinum grade refers to raw unginned seed cotton among others having two per cent trash and maximum eight per cent moisture.
Other parameters include fibre strength, micronaire (thickness) strength etc. Some of the kapas, Gupta said, were being purchased at Fair and Average Quality also. Most of the quality parameters are in accordance with the Kasturi brand being developed by the CCI. Kasturi is a superior quality of cotton bales marketed by the CCI with which it hopes to make a significant mark for Indian lint.
At present, the CCI has 15 procurement centres in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab and other kapas-growing states. The procurement centres, he said, was dictated by the requirement of the buyers of CCI. Most of the kapas procured are for domestic markets while the good quality ones are reserved for exports.
India’s cotton marketing, November to October 2022-23, had started with farmers commanding prices of Rs 9,000-Rs 9,500/quintal. This buoyant price had led to farmers to hold on to their crop in hope of better prices. Last season, due to a global cotton deficit, prices had touched Rs 10,000-Rs 11,000/quintal and farmers had hoped for a repeat of the same this season also. However, prices fell and are currently hovering around Rs 6,500-Rs 7,000/quintal.
Earlier this month, the Cotton Association of India (CAI) had downwardly revised its crop outlook. This season, they estimated, the country would have availability of 339.75 lakh bales.
